Food Blog: Chicken Cordon Bleu Redux and Asparagus with baby Portobellos and sun-dried tomatoes

Today's blog focuses on a complete meal - Chicken Cordon Bleu (adapted from Tyler Florence, I admit that I take it easier on the butter and olive oil than he does to cut fat, and I use a little less cheese as well), along with my own creation of fresh asparagus stir fried with fresh baby Portobello mushrooms and sun-dried tomatoes for a punch.

Below, behold the mise en place, which is French for "to put in place". It sounds frou-frou, but it's a good concept - basically having all of your ingredients set out and prepped so you can work easily with them. On the left, everything for the cordon bleu - on the right, the asparagus.

As I mentioned, the Chicken Cordon Bleu is a take on Tyler Florence's recipe and you can find that recipe here. For the play by play, here is how I put this meal together.  I made this for two, which is why you only see two chicken breasts. The recipe I write here will serve four.


Ingredients:
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
8 thin slices prosciutto di Parma
1/2 pound Gruyere, grated
1/4 cup all purpose flour
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 cup panko bread crumbs*
4 sprigs fresh thyme, leaves only
1 clove garlic, peeled and finely minced
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
2 eggs (or 4 egg whites)
Extra virgin olive oil


Ingredients for the asparagus:
1 lb of fresh asparagus spears 
1/2 cup of oil-free sun-dried tomatoes
8 oz package of baby Portobello mushrooms
Two garlic cloves, peeled and finely minced
Juice from approximately half a lemon
2 teaspoons butter
Drizzle of olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

*Panko bread crumbs can be found in the Asian section of most grocery stores, or in an Asian food market


Tools:
Meat mallet
Baking dish
Plastic wrap
Box or hand grater
Large knife
Large skillet
Three medium-sized bowls for dipping and breading the chicken


Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. 


First things first. You will need to get your chicken to the appropriate thickness so you can actually fill it with ingredients and roll it up.  To do so, you'll need to lay out a piece of plastic wrap, place the chicken on it, and place another piece of plastic wrap on top of it to prevent raw chicken splatter. (You'll be happy you did.)

Using the flat side of your meat mallet, you want to pound the chicken breasts repeatedly until they are about 1/4 inch thick, and larger in size. You'll see in a few minutes why this is necessary. When finished, they should look something like this:

This would also be a good time to grate your cheese and set up your "rolling station":

Now, you want to gently peel off two slices of prosciutto and layer it on top of one of your pieces of flattened chicken.  Then, take about 2 oz (or 1/4 of the shredded cheese) and place it on top of the prosciutto.  

Once this is complete, you are going to want to gently roll up the chicken - like you are rolling a tortilla - and then wrap plastic wrap around it tightly and twist it at the ends to help the chicken and the filling stay in one tight little bundle, like so:

Do the same thing with your remaining chicken breasts. After you have finished, wash your hands thoroughly and begin assembling the flour, eggs, and panko bread crumbs in three separate bowls.  Make sure you season the flour with salt and pepper, and whisk the eggs together lightly with a fork, also ensuring you season them with salt and pepper as well.  As Tyler says in the original recipe, you want all of the elements to be seasoned.

As stated in the original recipe, you will need to add a few more ingredients to the panko before you are ready to begin breading the chicken.  First, you will want the leaves only of the fresh thyme. To do this, simply run your fingers down the stem of the herb and the leaves will fall right onto your cutting board.  

Next, you will want to finely mince a peeled clove of garlic. Quick tip - in order to make chopping garlic easier, I prefer to "smash" the clove using my knife, which splits the peel and makes it all come off of the clove in one piece.  Be careful when doing this, as obviously you won't want to cut yourself just to save time peeling garlic :)

Mince the garlic, and add it to the panko, along with the tablespoon of melted butter.  Also add a dash of salt and pepper to ensure this third element is seasoned, as well. 

Mix these all together - the addition of the butter helps the crust to brown in the oven. Lastly, add a drizzle of olive oil to your baking dish and set the dish where you can easily place the chicken cordon bleu in it once you have rolled it properly.

The first order of business is to dredge the chicken in the flour. The flour will help the egg wash stick to the chicken, which will in turn allow the bread crumbs to form a delicious crust while it's baking in the oven. Mmmm.

Next, you want to gently roll the chicken in the beaten egg wash, and do this carefully so the entire surface area of your "roll-up" is covered.

Lastly, you'll want to dredge it through the panko crumbs, again working gently so the entire roulade is covered with the breadcrumbs.  After coating with breadcrumbs, gently set it in the baking dish and repeat the process for the remaining breasts.

Wash hands thoroughly, and place the baking dish in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown and cooked through. Please note - if you have larger chicken breasts or if your oven tends to cook more slowly, you may end up doing what I usually do, which is cooking through at 375 for about 35 minutes.

Now, while the chicken is cooking, feel free to relax with a beverage, and contemplate setting up your side dish of Asparagus with Baby Portobellos and Sun-dried Tomatoes.

(The dogs have little to no interest in either asparagus or beer, and so they are not featured in this blog.)

OK. For the asparagus. First thing you'll want to do is trim the tough ends of the asparagus off. I usually chop about an inch to an inch and a half off of the ends and discard those.

At the same time, you'll also want to fill a large skillet or pan about half full with water and set that to boiling on your stovetop.

The next two things I do are prep the lemon by rolling it on the cutting board - which makes it easier to squeeze the juice out - and clean the mushrooms.  You don't want to rinse the mushrooms under cold water, as they are very porous and absorb excess moisture easily. Rather, take a damp paper towel and gently wipe off the mushrooms, which will remove any excess dirt.

You can now set about to chopping the mushrooms into slices, and taking your sun-dried tomatoes and chopping those into small strips, like so:

The water should be boiling now, so you want to add the asparagus and let the water come back up to a boil.  You're aiming to cook them until they're crisp-tender, which will be about 2 minutes. 

Once two minutes is up, drain off the water and add the minced garlic, butter, and drizzle of olive oil to the pan with the asparagus still in it, at a medium to medium-high heat:

Toss together until the butter is melted, for about a minute, and then add the mushrooms and sun-dried tomatoes to the pan, tossing together.  Here, you can also add salt and pepper if you wish.  

If the mushrooms are cooking slowly, feel free to remove the asparagus to cook the mushrooms more quickly. About four minutes is how long I take to soften the mushrooms and the sun-dried tomatoes to a perfect texture. 

Next, squeeze half a lemon over the top of the asparagus - I find that the lemon juice really accentuates the flavor of the spears.  

Lastly, arrange on a serving dish.

Once your chicken is done, remove from the oven and let it rest for a few minutes. Because of the size of the roulades, I prefer to cut it into pinwheels and serve it that way for easier consumption.  Plate it, and serve!

Hope you enjoyed the blog - feel free to comment and let me know what you think :)